Sarevok & Rasaad TOB violent interaction?

Im sure many of you have noticed the interaction between Sarevok & Rasaad in TOB and find it a little suprising the developers put this in as Sarevok goes out of his way (compared to all other NPC's he interacts with) to goad Rasaad into a fight and our monk also uncharacteristically loses his temper and attacks unless PC intervenes...of course I let them resolve their differences and guess who gets chunked (hint: it involves a deathbringer assault)

Comments

Well, the question that the developers had to answer was something like: "Look, we have this lad, Rasaad, and his Selune thing. From all the characters in BG2, whom do you think will be the opponents of the Rasaad's philosophy, and such fierce, that it can lead to violence?"

It looks like the only answer was Sarevok, the Bhaalspawn with the evil past.

At that point in the story, he has lost everything. His brother is dead by his own hand. He committed deception in the name of stopping Alorgoth, which ended up being all for nothing, because Alorgoth escaped. As a result of that mistake and his being framed for the murder of the monks in the Athkatla temple, his order, which had been his whole world ever since he was eight, essentially excommunicated him (and possibly even tried to reap revenge on him, if Charname makes certain choices). He no longer has a family or a home. If Charname romances him, he doesn't have their relationship at that point. There's a conversation he has with Charname after Yaga-Shura's death that suggests that his faith in Selûne has been severely shaken as well. Essentially, his entire life has been dismantled. Add to that the fact that he's young and impressionable and you've got yourself quite a cocktail of emotional discord.

During his last quest, he actually finally snaps, and as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly evident that he's not in his right mind anymore. You can actually hear it in his voice (major kudos to Mark Meer), because every time he speaks, he sounds angrier and more desperate for revenge.

Taking all of that into account, it's no wonder that Sarevok throwing some really personal insults at him would make him lose control. It doesn't seem at all out of character for Evil!Sarevok to do that, either, considering that the man has notably strong opinions and doesn't have a problem with calling people out for doing things he considers weak or annoying, and he believes Rasaad is both of those things.

Never thought about it but yeah @Svar during rasaads final quest he does get a little "crazy" so guess I can see how that happens...and he's really the only NPC that will confront sarevok and we all know how that ends...he must be crazy and desperate